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Monday, 29 April 2013

Interview with JP Cooper

The first time I heard JP Cooper I was immediately blown
away by his talent , but when I had the opportunity to meet him at the last
Soul Live Birmingham I was in no way at all prepared for the pure level of
humility of Mr Copper or his enthusiasm, love, understanding and passion for
honest music. He is hands down the most intriguingly humblest man I think that
I have ever met.

For a man with a rare yet powerful Soul, it’s hard to
believe that his musical beginnings started in Rock bands which he said helped
to mould his sound and voice that has taken him 10 years to find.

Emerging from a “very white working class” background in
Manchester it was through Coopers exploration of Gospel music and being a fan
of Soul that he was able to find this voice that I just can’t get enough of.

With Musical Influences like Donnie Hathaway,Bill Riversand the legendary Stevie Wonder, Cooper is definitely a man who is
serious about real music. So to find out why Mr Copper is officially my first music
obsession of 2013 keep reading and I’m sure by the end of the interview you'll be obsessed too.

For those that aren’t
familiar with your music, how would you describe your sound.

Wow, you know what I really don’t know. In what I do I try
to be honest, try to keep things simple, I try to reveal as much as I can and I
try and strip it down to the bones and as far as the sound goes… I don’t know,
because it isn’t soul, it isn’t folk, it’s number of things.

What sets you apart
from the other soul artist out there today?It’s probably is because I came from such a different
background, and I mean here tonight I feel blessed to have been invited into
this kind of event, to be accepted. I mean its Soulive,
so for someone to say I feel your soul when you sing, that’s what it’s all
about.

So how would you
explain your background?I grew up in a very white working class area, so I was more
exposed to indie music. I live in Manchester, so the whole Manchester thing was
going on and everybody was in Indi Bands, that’s maybe why it took me so long
to get into soul music because there weren’t many people sharing that. Luckily
over the years I’ve found Gospel Choir, I’ve found other musicians and I’ve
learnt a lot, whereas I used to hide behind my long hair and loud guitars.

Considering you
started out in Rock, is this something that you still delve into or are you solely
Soul Music?I don’t know if I would go back into that, I probably
wouldn’t because I’ve always wanted to do something acoustic, something soulful,
I think it was just finding the confidence to bare that and it took me ten
years to focus on what I had that was special and individual, so I feel like
I’m just scratching the surface now.

Who or what inspires
you lyrically? I don’t really know if there’s been any people that have
influenced me to write. Most of the things are just everyday emotions, things
that I’ve been nostalgic about, things that have moved me in a good way, things
that have moved me in a confused way. A lot of the time when I’m writing I’m
figuring things out, so half the time I don’t know what the songs about when
I’m writing it and then when I finish sometimes it’s a year later that it says
something to me and that’s what’s beautiful about it. I do really try and keep
it simple and I do want to be able to speak to everybody, I don’t just want to
just be able to speak to intellectual people, I want to keep it simple because
I’m a simple guy.

Keeping with the
theme of inspiration and lyrics, ‘Oh the Water’ is one of my favourite songs. What
inspired such a powerful song? I think that when I wrote that song I was trying to speak to
a part of myself that tells me that I can’t do something. I have massive doubt
issues with myself, I’m kind of working them out. It’s about dealing with self-doubt
and not sweeping it under the rug, it’s about facing it and dealing with it and
helping a part of yourself that is being beat on. So that’s what that songs
about, and it’s another one that spoke to me.

If there is anyone
that you could work with dead or alive, who would it be?

There are people that I would love to meet, but I would love
to meet and learn from. I’m a huge Donnie Hathaway
fan and I got to support his daughter Lalah Hathaway.

Stevie wonder, what a man,
what a legacy. It would be great to sit down with Bill
Riversjust because he seems like such a great down to earth kind of guy
and I don’t know how he’s managed to keep that, that’s a really big aspiration
to have.

So there you have it ladies and gents, a little insight in
to who this magnificent artist is and where he came from! I definitely recommend
you keep a close eye on him and if JP is coming to a town near you, not going to
see him live is not an option! But for the time being check out the video below
of JP performing ‘Oh the Water’ Live atSoulive
back in February, and if you look closely enough you’ll see a little shortie in the front row who looks like she’s in pure heaven … yep that little shortie is moi
and if heaven feels anything like I felt during that moment then boy, I better
be on my best behaviour!

To see more quality Artist’s like JP get yourself down to
the Rainbow Warehouse, Digbeth Birmingham on May 11th for round 3 of Soulive! I for one canny wait!!